A horizontal plug flow and stackable pilot microbial fuel cell for municipal wastewater treatment

Yujie Feng; Weihua He; Jia Liu; Xin Wang; Youpeng Qu; Nanqi Ren

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2013.12.104

A horizontal plug flow and stackable pilot microbial fuel cell for municipal wastewater treatment

Bioresour Technol. 2014 Mar:156:132-8. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2013.12.104. Epub 2014 Jan 3.

Authors

Yujie Feng¹, Weihua He², Jia Liu², Xin Wang³, Youpeng Qu², Nanqi Ren²

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, No. 73 Huanghe Road, Nangang District, Harbin 150090, China. Electronic address: yujief@hit.edu.cn.
² State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, No. 73 Huanghe Road, Nangang District, Harbin 150090, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, No. 73 Huanghe Road, Nangang District, Harbin 150090, China; Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, Ministry of Education, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China.

PMID: 24495538
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2013.12.104

Abstract

An application-oriented stackable horizontal MFC (SHMFC) was designed and proved to be capable for sewage treatment and simultaneously energy recovery. The system consisted of multiple stackable 250L modules, which is the largest single MFC module by far. Domestic wastewater was fed into SHMFC in horizontal advection. During the stable operation period, a maximum current 0.435±0.010A in each module was observed under the external resistance of 1Ω and the maximum power density was 116mW. The effluent COD was 70±17mgL(-1) with a removal rate of 79±7% and the effluent TN was 13±3mgL(-1) with a removal rate of 71±8%. From the comparison between SHMFC module (250L) and 4-cm cubic MFC (28mL), the internal resistance distribution changes and the contact resistance becomes assignable and even limiting factor in the enlargement.

Keywords: Electricity generation; Microbial fuel cell; Sewage wastewater treatment; Stackable horizontal MFC (SHMFC).

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Bioelectric Energy Sources* / economics
Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis
China
Cities*
Costs and Cost Analysis
Electricity
Electrodes
Pilot Projects
Sewage / chemistry
Wastewater / economics
Wastewater / microbiology*
Water Purification / economics
Water Purification / instrumentation*

Substances

Sewage
Waste Water